Horizon signal genetic problems

[Lost_Luna]

(Abridged question I am looking for a way to change species appearance Midgame.


I'm having a bit of trouble with the Horizon Signal event chain. I am playing as a Terran civilization, with Human species portraits, but when I permit my scientists to unleash the genetic virus it transforms my species into a hideous anteater/horse hybrid creature. This change bothers me on an aesthetic level. I understand that the species changes appearance, and I have counted on it, but in my previous playthroughs humans always transformed into one of the other humanoid species, usually the blue tendrilled ones, which I realy liked. So I am seeking a possible means to:
A) Change species appearance in game with Console.
B) modify the gamefiles in such a way that it's possible to determine which species my faction will transform into
C) a mod that will allow me to do this, or if all else fails to keep the species portrait the same while still transforming the species

I would like to try out a few custom races like the Quarians or Asari, but don't want them to transform into butterflies halfway through the game.


Thanks in advance, and forgive me for any breach of protocol, im new.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

That's a bug, as far as I know (they should ALWAYS become the blue tendril-y one, unless they start as it, in which case they become one of the other humanoid portraits in particular).

Still, you can manually edit your save file- if you look up guides to how to change your empire's core Ethos, they're broadly applicable in the same way. I did this sort of edit myself one game; you'll need to find the particular ID tags and then find/replace them where needed.

 

[Mitchz95]

I believe 0 is the ID number for your own species. Just search it and change the portrait to whatever you want.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

I believe 0 is the ID number for your own species. Just search it and change the portrait to whatever you want.

It's a little more complicated than that- once your species is altered by the Horizon Signal event, it's actually creating new species for every step of the changes. Mine was something like Species #38?

(Also, actually changing the portrait ID needs to be done for every POP and every "character")

 

[Lost_Luna]

>(Also, actually changing the portrait ID needs to be done for every POP and every "character")
oh wow, that would be an undertaking...
Thanks for the info, I'm trying the save editing route, though I am struggling with correctly unzipping and then compressing the files back again, but I think I have sorted it out.
I'm going to try the Signal event with a different Humanoid species and see if it still changes the appearance to the mammel horse creatures. I think my issue lies in humans having a distinct title in code from the rest of the Humanoid portraits, hopefully trying another species will work it out. If not ill have to rely on save editing, which would add a bit of makework to each game, unless I get over my own squeamishness at ugly aliens.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

>(Also, actually changing the portrait ID needs to be done for every POP and every "character")
oh wow, that would be an undertaking...
Thanks for the info, I'm trying the save editing route, though I am struggling with correctly unzipping and then compressing the files back again, but I think I have sorted it out.
I'm going to try the Signal event with a different Humanoid species and see if it still changes the appearance to the mammel horse creatures. I think my issue lies in humans having a distinct title in code from the rest of the Humanoid portraits, hopefully trying another species will work it out. If not ill have to rely on save editing, which would add a bit of makework to each game, unless I get over my own squeamishness at ugly aliens.

Can't be a Humans-specific problem- first time I properly played through the event chain it was as the UNE and I got the weird blue tendril portrait.

(Also changing the ID for all the POPs and characters isn't actually that bad if use find/replace)

 

[Mitchz95]

One thing I've noticed is that the AI sometimes forgets that humans are Humanoids and not Mammalians. Sometimes empires will call them "sphinxes" instead of "angels", for example. It could be something to do with that. I know the horse portrait is what generic Mammalians turn into with that event.